Impound fees on stolen vehicle

[cottony]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? IL (Chicago)

My car was stolen on August 18th, at which time I filed a police report. Over a month later, on September 23rd I received a letter from the City of Chicago saying that my car had been impounded on August 21st. The letter itself was dated on August 31st and the envelope shows that the post office had attempted delivery on September 2nd (though they did not leave a notice). On September 23rd, the post office finally made a second attempt at delivery (this is when I actually received the letter).

I was never notified by the police that my car had been found because the thieves had used my car while they were caught in the act of stealing another car. The police officers apparently never thought to check if the car that the criminals were driving was itself stolen.

So here I am, stuck with a $1400 impound fee. This does not seem fair to me. Three separate groups seem to have made a mistake for the fee to get so high (the police officers for never informing me that my car was recovered, the city impound for taking 10 days to actually mail the letter, and the post office for waiting 3 weeks to actually deliver the letter - especially since they knew what it was [talking to the mailman when I received the letter they mentioned "Oh, looks like your car was towed", so they know what the envelope looks like..])

So what can I do? How can they do this? Hiring a lawyer seems prohibitively expensive. Is there an appeals for this?

Thank you,
C

[Stevef]

Originally Posted by cottony

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? IL (Chicago)

My car was stolen on August 18th, at which time I filed a police report. Over a month later, on September 23rd I received a letter from the City of Chicago saying that my car had been impounded on August 21st. The letter itself was dated on August 31st and the envelope shows that the post office had attempted delivery on September 2nd (though they did not leave a notice). On September 23rd, the post office finally made a second attempt at delivery (this is when I actually received the letter).

I was never notified by the police that my car had been found because the thieves had used my car while they were caught in the act of stealing another car. The police officers apparently never thought to check if the car that the criminals were driving was itself stolen.

So here I am, stuck with a $1400 impound fee. This does not seem fair to me. Three separate groups seem to have made a mistake for the fee to get so high (the police officers for never informing me that my car was recovered, the city impound for taking 10 days to actually mail the letter, and the post office for waiting 3 weeks to actually deliver the letter - especially since they knew what it was [talking to the mailman when I received the letter they mentioned "Oh, looks like your car was towed", so they know what the envelope looks like..])

So what can I do? How can they do this? Hiring a lawyer seems prohibitively expensive. Is there an appeals for this?

Thank you,
C

The car thieves are responsible for your damages.